Home to the Kodak company for over 125 years, Rochester, New York is a city uniquely defined by photography. Photo City focuses on the lives of the city’s photographic and creative community as they struggle to maintain a link to their analogue past and to forge an identity in this new digital age.

Featuring an eclectic cast of characters, from former Kodak factory floor workers to the father of digital photography, this is a film about how a city is shaped by its people. Their personal and professional struggles give us a glimpse of what it means to be a creative today and how in a company town weighed down by its own history, some moments never fade. The film also features interviews with professor/filmmaker Carvin Eison, writer/photographer Frank De Blase, along with members of the Democrat and Chronicle.

Directors John Murphy and Traolach O’ Murchú will be in attendance and will participate in an audience Q&A following each screening. (OTFF)

Photographer Arleen Thaler uses the power of pictures to take us to places that are not far from where we live, yet most of us never visit.

Her photos take us to the neighborhood around Rochester’s Jones Park, near Lyell and Saratoga Avenues. Thaler, with her Fuji X-100s digital camera, introduces us to the sex workers, many of them drug addicted, who roam those streets, and huddle against the cold in abandoned homes. Many of the yards and alleys are strewn with garbage, including the needles that are telltale signs of the drug use that is so common in that part of the city….read more

New to America, a relative of friends now living in Warsaw, NY. Several Nepalese families have relocated from Rochester, NY and are now small scale farming and creating a new life for themselves. Sharing in Dashain, a very special Nepalese festival. C=celebrating good ruling over evil, the Documentary Photography class was blessed with receiving Tika of rice on our foreheads by the elder family member. A special day with old friends! Happy Happy.

Over several weeks the Documentary Photography class at Flower City Arts Center will be immersing themselves with our New American friends now living in Warsaw, NY. Several Nepalese families have relocated from Rochester, NY and are now creating a new life for themselves. There are many reasons that brought them to the country away from the city. Violence, self sufficiency, space, and the ability to small scale farm to name a few. I look forward to sharing our adventure and their story while catching up with our old friends from Rochester, NY and those new to America who still live there.

This is Mary’s PlaceMary’s Place is a non-profit refugee outreach center in Northwest Rochester, NY. Our mission is to reach out in love, hope, and service to refugees of all faiths and nationalities, particularly those in the Maplewood/Edgerton neighborhood.